Final unemployment rate: 7.9 percent

By Alexander Burns

11/02/12 08:34 AM EDT

The nation's unemployment rate ticked up marginally to 7.9 percent in October, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its last report of the 2012 campaign:

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 171,000 in October, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 7.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment rose in professional and business services, health care, and retail trade.

The month-to-month jobless data hasn't seemed to move the polls significantly in a while, so it's hard to see how this changes the campaign debate in the final days. If unemployment had ticked back up to 8 percent, it would have been inconvenient for the president and given Mitt Romney an opening to deliver a final punch on the economy. But that didn't happen, and so the race goes on.